Hunter's Mark
The Hunter's Mark is a mark which appears as a tattoo on the body of a member of The Brotherhood of the Five. The mark begins at the dorsal face of the right hand and continues up the arm and across the chest, revealing the story of the first immortal Silas, the death of his lover, his entrapment, and the ultimate mission of the Brotherhood. It serves many purposes - it's a map, a story, a coded message and a spell all at the same time. History The Hunter's Mark was created centuries after the powerful witches (Qetsiyah and Silas) created the first known spell of immortality. In revenge for Silas's betrayal, Qetsiyah killed his lover. As for Silas, because the immortality spell kept him from dying, Qetsiyah buried him alive with a cure for immortality, hoping he would take it, die, and be with her on The Other Side for all eternity. Instead, he refused, not wanting to meet his end by Qetsiyah's terms. One of Qetsiyah's descendants, a dying witch, created the The Brotherhood of the Five, a group of vampire hunters. The mark was given to The Five as a means to find Silas and the Cure, which they believed was the ultimate weapon to rid the world of vampires. When the original members of the Five were killed by Klaus. It was assumed the brotherhood was extinct. In fact, at any given time there are always five hunters. It took over 52 years for each original member of the brotherhood to be replaced. Killing a hunter causes one to be affected by the Hunter's Curse. Connor Jordan discovered he was a potential hunter when he saw the mark on his friend, whom he had served with in Iraq. When his friend died, the mark appeared on Connor's arm, and with it came the intense urge to kill vampires. The more vampires Connor killed, the more the mark grew. In 2010, Connor came to Mystic Falls to kill vampires after being sent there by Atticus Shane who wanted him to grow his mark as part of his plan to find and raise Silas. While there, he discovered that Jeremy Gilbert was a potential hunter when Jeremy was able to see the Hunter's Mark. Jeremy helped lure Connor into a trap set by Damon; he is captured by Klaus, who ordered Jeremy to draw the tattoo. Connor later managed to escape by killing his hybrid guard and the mark grew. He later held Jeremy, Matt and April hostage at The Grill and killed the hybrid Dean, causing it to grow once again. Eventually Elena killed him, preventing the mark's completion. After Connor's death, the mark appeared on Jeremy's hand. In order to end the Hunter's Curse from which Elena is suffering, Jeremy killed one of Klaus' hybrids, effectively initiating Jeremy as one of The Five. Later, Stefan forced Jeremy to kill a vampire in order to grow the mark, but an unanticipated side effect was that Jeremy's urge to kill vampires, including his sister, was intensified, as well as becoming immune to compulsion. In the interest of completing the Mark as soon as possible, Klaus turned a bar-full of people into vampires just for Jeremy to kill. When Klaus' brother, Kol, intervened, he contemplated cutting off Jeremy's arms to prevent the mark from being used to find Silas. In A View To A Kill, Jeremy used the White Oak Stake to kill Kol and, thus, every vampire in his bloodline. Doing so completed the Mark and made it visible to everyone. In Into the Wild, Shane led everyone to a mysterious island to find the cure, where Bonnie continued to try understanding the message of the Mark in order to use it for the spell. Another member of The Five, Galen Vaughn, attacked Damon, who notices the Mark on his attacker's arm. In Down the Rabbit Hole, Vaughn, revealed to a captive Damon that although he had spent his entire life killing vampires, his Mark had mysteriously completed itself around the same time that Jeremy's had. Meanwhile, Shane led Bonnie and Jeremy into the cave where Silas lay with the Cure, and Bonnie performed a spell that draws on the power of the Mark, causing a rockfall in the cave and revealing a new passage. During the spell, the mark disappeared from Jeremy's body as well as Vaughn's. Use of the Hunter's Mark *'Map': The Hunter's Mark is primarily a map that directs the hunter to the location of Silas' tomb. *'Story': The Hunter's Mark pictorially explains glimpses of the story of the first immortal, Silas. It describes the murder of a woman, Silas' lover; the witch, Qetsiyah, who killed her; the entrapment of the immortal creature; and the mission of The Five - To cure Silas of immortality and then kill him. *'Message': The Mark has vines and roots that surround all the characters and events in the Mark, chronologically. The vines have symbols on them. These symbols are supposed to be the key to deciphering the messages coded onto the cryptex of the hunter's sword. The cryptex was revealed in Down the Rabbit Hole on the sword of Alexander. *'Spell': The Mark is also a spell that only a descendant of Qetsiyah could use to unseal the Tomb of Silas. The spell has to be absorbed by the witch and channeled at the location of the entrance of Silas' tomb. *'Record': Since after the first and original generation of the Brotherhood of the Five, all those who came after them would always have the Hunter's Mark incomplete upon first manifesting on their bodies. To complete it, the Mark's bearer must kill Vampiric entities, causing the tattoo to grow into completion. Hence, the Mark represents the magnitude of how many Vampires the Hunter has killed. *'Identification': Because there can only be five current Hunters of the Brotherhood of the Five in any given time, there can also only be five Hunter's Marks in existence at any given time, one for each active Hunter. The Mark serves as a way of identifying Hunters for those who know of its history, and as a way for current Hunters to identify Potentials, as only they can see it. Workings of the mark The original members of the brotherhood had the completed mark on their bodies that could be seen by all. When they were killed by Klaus, their marks magically disappeared. Since then, incomplete hunter's mark on new hunters could be seen only by other hunters or potentials. A potential becomes a hunter when a current hunter gets killed. The initial portion of the mark - the Grand Sigil - appears on the right hand of the hunter, as soon as a current hunter dies - the dead hunter loses all progress made in his mark. After this happens when a new hunter makes his first vampire kill, the hunter gets awakened, breaking a possible Hunter's curse, and filling the hunter with immense power. From then every time the hunter kills a vampire, the mark grows piece by piece; more is revealed after every kill. With every kill the hunter's urge to kill vampires gets stronger. It appears as if the mark growth causes some minor level of physical pain to the hunter for short moments, and multiple growths all at once may actually cause excruciating pain. Completion of the mark takes a very long time, since Vaughn never came close to completing his Mark despite going after Vampire dens for most of his life. It is unknown how many vampires have to be killed in order to complete the mark; the only instance it is shown to be completed was because Jeremy killed Kol whose bloodline must extend to tens of thousands of vampires; and Kol's death, being an Original Vampire, also meant the subsequent death of his progeny and theirs. The fact that Kol's death probably meant the demise of other Vampires from his bloodline worldwide means that the murder does not have to occur in the Hunter's presence, as any death by their hands will still cause the Mark to grow. When the mark completes it becomes visible to everybody and not just the hunter. Completing one hunter's mark on one, completes the mark on every current hunter - it is unknown what would happen if the hunter dies, whether the mark on other hunters would revert to its previous state or not - we might never know. Once completed, the mark forms a map that leads to a cure for immortality. To read the map, one would need the original swords of one of the original members of the brotherhood. Once located, the mark also functions like a spell to access the resting place of Silas. A witch, descendant of Qetsiyah, could absorb the spell and use it to unseal Silas' tomb. The absorption process causes the hunter's mark to disappear from all current hunters starting with the beginning of the mark. It is unknown if or not the person with the mark continues to be a hunter after it was gone. Design of Hunter's Mark The mark has several images linked by roots, runes and stones. *Grand Sigil - It is a resemblance to the Icelandic sigil " Vegvísir", which means ‘guidepost’ or ‘direction sign". This sigil refers to the location of the Island or cavern where Silas is buried. It appears on the back of the Hunter's right hand and happens to be the part of the Mark that first appears on the new Potential - growing with each Vampiric creature they kill; the Sigil's manifestation serves two purposes: one is that a preceding member of The Five has passed to The Other Side. The other purpose is that the Potential Hunter is ready to be awakened and take the previous one's place within The Five. *Innocent Lady - She is the woman who is being stabbed in the back by a hooded figure. The image refers to the Silas' Lover, who died because of the anger and envy of Qetsiyah. It can be found on the Hunter's right bicep. *Hooded Figure - It is the being who is stabbing the woman. The image refers to Qetsiyah, a powerful and spiteful witch, she was able to kill a innocent lady and buried her best friend because of her envy. It is seen also on the Hunter's right bicep. *'Unique Pentagram' - It is a slighly slanted pentagram that is within a ring with roots, runes and stones tangled around the outer edge. The same image was on a framed parchment in Shane's office. It is unknown what it's importance is. It is located on the shoulder of the right arm on a Hunter. *Creature - It is the image in the upper part of the Mark. Possibly, this being is Silas, because he is described as a very dangerous creature, malevolent and able to unleash hell on earth. It is located on the upper right pectoral of the Hunter's chest. *Five Swords - It is the last image of the mark. The five swords are hunters/guardians, they have a duty to find and destroy Silas. It is found on the Hunter's left breast. Known carriers *Alexander (mark completed, deceased) *Four unnamed original members of the five (marks completed, deceased) *Five unnamed Hunters in late 12th Century (unknown, deceased) *Connor's friend (unknown, deceased) *Connor Jordan (mark incompleted, deceased) *Jeremy Gilbert (mark completed, alive) *Galen Vaughn (mark completed, deceased) Trivia *In We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes, Klaus tells Elena that he endured the curse "for 52 years, 4 months, and 9 days," and that "eventually it just stopped". This meant that the original five new hunters must have been replaced by the first potentials on their respective first vampire kills as the only way to end the Hunter's Curse is to awaken a new hunter or if the vampire/hybrid commits suicide. Obviously the last one to awaken, took that long since the death of the original five. * The beginning of the Hunter's Mark bears a strong resemblance to the Icelandic sigil "Ægishjálmur". * Interestingly, there are vines and roots covering Silas's body, just like the vines and roots that connect the symbols on the tattoo. * When Jeremy's mark completed, so did Galen Vaughn's. When Jeremy's vanished from Bonnie's spell, so did Vaughn's as well. It can be assumed from this that once the mark for one completes, so do the marks on the other four as well as when the spell was used, that the other hunters' marks dissapeared along with Jeremy's. * The number of vampires that have to die to complete the Hunter's Mark is unknown. Category:Objects Category:Witchcraft Category:Articles by MrsLunchBox